[CityGal]

Some of the teachers at my school have asked that I look into finding a test or quiz of some sort to determine which areas students fall into, in regards to multiple intelligences.

I've had plenty of experience researching the intelligences, and have seen a multitude of tests for middle-school students and higher, but not really anything appropriate for elementary age chidlren.

Any suggestions as to where something like this might be found? I'm open to websites, books, or something an individual put together and has used successfully.

Also, an interest survey is another thing I'm looking for. I could write one, but why re-invent the wheel if someone else has had success with theirs?

Thanks in advance!

[yesteach]

Dr. Betts has a simple test in his Autonomous Learner book for K-3, you might check there. About halfway down, it's called "The Young Gifted Child and the Autonomous Learner Model"

[Gwenie]

We made posters of each intelligence and discussed them. Then, we let the kids tell us which smart they were. We listed sorts of activities under each poster that would show examples of how they like to learn.

We tried an inventory, but kids would fall under several categories or they just didn't get the questions. I found this approach works much better. I did it by paper for 3 years and have been doing this approach for 2 years. I feel that I get a better sense of where my kids are with this approach.

One of the teachers I teach with made a vocab station for each kind of smart as we call it. Then, you can see which one each kid goes to. This is something else we watch in class too.

[CityGal]

Thanks, Gwenie, I like that idea.

I've been doing an individual inventory, and I'm finding that they don't completely understand all of the questions/examples, even though it is written for the younger age levels than most MI assessments.

I'll try the poster/vocab station approach and see if that isn't a bit easier (and maybe more fun!). Thanks so much!

Hi there,
I've followed your discussion with interest. I am about to write a syllabus designed for young learners (10+) learning English as a second language. I intend to carry out an initial assessment by first finding out their learning styles.

The fact that English is not their first language plays even a bigger barrier so I have decided to skip the test altogether and set up a series of activities that stimulate the 7 main intelligences. I understand this might be time consuming.

Careful monitoring will be absolutely key here, I'll be writing notes as the students carry out the tasks. Then I will simply ask the students three simple questions:
what task did you enjoy the most?
what task did you find very easy?
what task did you not like? Why?

Hopefully this should give me a rough idea of their main strengths and learning preferences.

Any more comments or suggestions are more than welcome.
Lara

[Ventilated]

Hi Lara,

Great to see teachers taking so much time to find out this kind of information about your students-one word of warning-you do realise that "learning styles" and "multiple intelligences" are different things right?

My only concern with Gwenie's idea is that children can be intelligent in more than one way. I think that if you use an intelligence inventory and find that children are more inclined to learn through logical and intrapersonal methods, then that should be ok. If we have our students pick one and only one intelligence, are we defeating the purpose of multiple intelligence theory?